"No disrespect, because I'm a fan, but nobody brings up the fact that he stabbed somebody and sold drugs," said Brown, referring to an incident in which the Jay Z plead guilty to stabbing record producer Lance "Un" Rivera in 1999.

"He gets a pass."

Brown said he’s trying to make amends for his past, including his infamous assault of on-again off-again girlfriend Rihanna in 2009.

"You have to go through the struggle before you can get to the good part," he said. "I don’t try to lash out at people or be as mad or impulsive as I used to be. I got to the point where it's only so much you can take from the master, you feel me? I've taken my fair share of lashings."

Idris Elba in a scene from Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom.Source:Supplied

Idris Elba is one of the hottest actors on the planet, but he’s faced more than his fair share of hurdles to get there.

In a candid interview, Elba has admitted he used to sell marijuana to make ends meet.

"I was DJ’ing, but I was also pushing bags of weed; I was doing my work," he said. "I had to. I know that sounds corny, but this is the truth."

The 41-year-old star is currently being mooted as a possible Oscar nominee for his stellar turn as Nelson Mandela in Mandela: A Long Walk To Freedom.

But success has been a long time coming.

When he first moved to America, offers of work weren’t exactly knocking down his door. He said the subsequent stress took a toll on his marriage.

"[She] didn't adjust to the culture as quickly as I did,” Elba said. "We just had a hard time. The next thing you know, we broke up."

Then, after things got better following his star-making turn as drug dealer Stringer Bell on The Wire and his subsequent rise to fame, Elba discovered in 2010 that a child he thought was his son was not biologically his.

"The celebration of having a son - from a man’s perspective, it’s massive," he said.

"It wasn’t immediately obvious - well, it was, because he didn’t look like me. To be given that and then have it taken away so harshly was like taking a full-on punch in the face.

"Even admitting it, I’ll probably get laughed at for the rest of my life. But it is just tragic, and it happened. ... It happened to me. I moved on."

Elba said the role of flawed London detective Luther helped him through the pain.

"Luther came at a time where, you know, it was gaga therapy for me, man."

samberg newsomSource:Getty Images

Funnyman Andy Samberg has married his very cool musician girlfriend Joanna Newsom over the weekend in Big Sur, California.

The couple of five years got engaged in February, and met after Samberg (a fan of Newsom’s music) attended one of the singer’s shows.

The former Saturday Night Live star, who's about to be seen on new Fox comedy Brooklyn Nine Nine, said the couple had spoken about a possible collaboration, but realised it was probably pretty unlikely.

"We’ve talked about [collaborating.] But we’ve decided ultimately that her fans would probably kill me in my sleep," he said.

"What she does is so, like, actually beautiful and important."

Yep, somehow, we can’t imagine the elegant Newsom coming out with a tune called D**k in a Box, but stranger things have happened.